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Online Newsletter Nr. 135
Philippine Community

    From the Chaplain:


    "ONLY GOD GIVES
    THE GROWTH"
       A year has passed since I started my work as a chaplain for the Filipinos in Berlin. It has been a year of drastic transition and adjustment both for the community and me. Within one year, the Filipino catholic community in Bayernallee had lost all three of its outstanding former chaplains: Msgr. Hermogenes Bacareza, Fr. Erasio Flores and Fr. Adonis Narcelles. Together with many others in the community, I continue to mourn their loss.

       But life goes on, even if we want it to stand still at times. We have to learn to move on. We can only admire the exemplary missionary lives and achievements of our former chaplains. We can look up to them as inspiration and models of lived faith. As their successor, I feel I'm not worthy to fill in their shoes. But God has sent me to shepherd the Christian community they have left behind. Full of trust and hope, I pray constantly that God will guide my decision and actions.

       The Filipino catholic community in Berlin currently encompasses three generations. It has become more complicated and challenging. For some, it is a place where to meet old friends and enjoy their company. For others, it has become part of their extended family. It is a fellowship with many different faces and personalities. It is a sisterhood and brotherhood which goes beyond the national bonds but shares a binding Christian faith. The Heilig Geist Pfarrei has become a kind of spiritual abode, where Filipinos in Berlin could somehow satisfy their religious desires. Eucharistic celebrations, rosaries, prayer meetings, religious singing practice and bible sharings are only external expressions of inner religious needs. It is more than participating regularly on Sunday services; it is living out faithfully the communion
    with God and others, even before and after the holy Mass.

       Being part of this faith community is an enrichment to my spiritual journey. I consider myself lucky for being assigned chaplain in Berlin. This Filipino community here has distinctive characteristics, which I find inspiring: a relative high degree of human maturity, religious commitment, communal solidarity, willful sacrifice and grateful generosity. These virtues help build Christian community life. Every member, who practices it, gives witness to the ideal of peace, which is often lost in the real world.

       Nevertheless, living in a community is never easy. Everyone makes his or her own experience of being welcomed and accepted. Each one has a specific social need of belonging. Some may keep distance as their personal preference. Others may not be able to find a suitable company. Still others have other pressing concerns. As chaplain, I accept these realities and variety. However, the community remains open for those who are willing to join. It is not an exclusive club for Filipinos. Not all of us are migrants here, but we are all pilgrims of shared faith and renewed hope bonded together in a communal journey.

       Meditating on the passing of my predecessors, I realized that we chaplains come and go, but the community remains and grows according to God's will. St. Paul wrote in his first letter to the Corinthians: „I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.“ (1 Cor 3:5-7). God has blessed the Filipino community in Berlin. We are grateful for this as we celebrated our 26th anniversary last year. May God continue to lead us as we enter the new year 2013.
    FR. SIMON BOISER, SVD

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